This morning the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc announced its second quarter results.

In subsequent news coverage, Bloomberg commentators said they were stunned by the lack of comment by Shell on the risk of reprisals by Russia to the recent announcement of EU sanctions targeting the Russian oil and gas industry.

Ryan Chilcote of Bloomberg raised the prospect of what he described as a Def Con 5 reprisal by Putin seizing Shell assets – see screenshot.

Extract

July 31 (Bloomberg) — Bloomberg’s Ryan Chilcote reviews second-quarter results from Shell and looks at the potential negative impact of their exposure to Russia. He speaks on “The Pulse.”read more

Extracts from a Bloomberg News article by Eduard Gismatullin published 31 July 2014

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europe’s biggest oil company, said second-quarter earnings rose 33 percent on higher U.S. energy prices and increased production. Profit excluding one-time items and inventory changes gained to $6.1 billion from $4.6 billion a year earlier, The Hague-based Shell said today in a statement. Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden, who took over from Peter Voser at the start of the year, is accelerating asset sales and reviewing spending plans to win investor support. He needs a return to profit in the Americas’ operation, where the company is deploying about $80 billion.read more

Extracts from a MarketWatch article published 31 July 2014

LONDON (MarketWatch) — The U.K.’s benchmark’s stock index rose for the first time in two days on Thursday, getting a lift from shares of Royal Dutch Shell PLC after the oil giant’s earnings jumped in the second-quarter. The oil major said its second-quarter profit more than doubled as it benefited from higher liquid-petroleum prices and higher prices for specific products.

Extracts from a Bloomberg News article by James Paton dated 31 July 2014

Woodside Petroleum Ltd plan to buy back shares from Royal Dutch Shell Plc for $2.7 billion is at risk of being rejected by shareholders as it falls short of the votes needed to proceed. The buyback is part of Shell’s deal last month to raise $5 billion trimming most of its 23 percent stake in Australia’s second-largest oil producer. A no vote would leave Shell with a larger, unwanted stake, and add to Woodside’s frustrations after a plan to invest as much as $2.6 billion in an Israeli gas project collapsed, according to Macquarie Group Ltd.read more

Extract from a Rigzone article published Wednesday 30 July 2014

In 2008, Shell announced it would partner with Qatar Petroleum and build Pearl GTL in order to produce cleaner-burning diesel and kerosene, base oils for top-tier lubricants, a chemical feedstock called naphtha (used to make plastics) and normal paraffin, which is used to produce detergents. Today, the plant in Ras Laffan Industrial City, 80km north of Doha, Qatar, is the largest gas-to-liquids plant in the world.

The results come in sharp contrast to Shell’s performance in the first three months of the year, when it reported a 44% drop in profits after writing down the value of refineries in Asia and Europe.read more

Extracts from a Reuters article by Jonathan Stempel published Tuesday 29 July 2014

(Reuters) – BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Morgan Stanley and other companies urged a U.S. judge to dismiss nationwide litigation claiming they conspired for 12 years to fix prices of Brent crude oil, a benchmark for the cost of gasoline and heating oil.

In papers filed on Monday night in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the defendants said there was no evidence they colluded to manipulate spot prices or intended to do so, in violation of U.S. commodity and antitrust laws.

They also said that because the alleged manipulation took place outside the United States and was governed by foreign law, U.S. courts had no authority to handle the case to begin with.read more

Aptly named Prelude, at 488 meters long, 74 meters wide, and clocking in at 600,000 tonnes when fully ballasted, the FLNG facility, which is under construction at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea, will be the largest object ever floated on the ocean. Bruce Steenson, Shell’s general manager of integrated gas programs and innovation, has been widely quoted as confirming that Shell is working on an even larger design. “That next one will be off the rails,” he told Reuters. Prelude will be sitting out in the middle of nowhere in cyclone alley central. Shell has no intentions of untethering the facility every time a bad wind blows and towing it to shore. Instead, a number of factors are supposed to ensure that Prelude sits tight in savage seas.read more

In total, Kashagan is now expect to cost a total of $136 billion, more than 140% above initial estimates. Production has been consistently delayed; the most recent delay, which occurred at the end of last year, concerns the project’s pipelines. At present, the project is being overseen by Italy’s Eni, although ExxonMobil is shortly set to take over. Shell, Eni, and Total all have a 16.8% stake in the project, and Morgan Stanley’s analysts believe that as a result of the delays, these three companies will have their 2016 net income estimates reduced by $500 million each. That is a large figure, even for these oil giants.read more

Extracts from a Seeking Alpha article published 28 July 2014

Companies including Shell, Chevron and Exxon are diverting more and more funds to the world’s richest economies, as they grow tired of the risks of working in violent and corrupt places for the reward of finding oil and gas reserves that can be profitably exploited… The companies are pulling out of more conflict-torn and difficult regions: Shell since 2010 has sold $1.8B of its Nigerian assets and last year began talks to sell four oil production blocks and a pipeline there.

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden was straightforward in what he publicly stated at the 2014 AGM of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. He said that Shell puts the interests of its shareholders first, above any geopolitical considerations. That is his excuse for Shell’s dealings with evil regimes in Iran and Russia, irrespective of sanctions. You can tell all you need to know about Ben’s priorities from his failure to sign the document “SHELL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES” – it is still signed by his predecessor Peter Voser, who abandoned ship long ago. read more

Some of Shell’s big shareholders are said to be frustrated by the company’s continued spending on expensive far-flung projects that fail to yield healthy returns. Alongside its profit warning at the start of this year, Shell announced that it was halting a controversial exploration programme off the coast of Alaska because the costs had far outweighed the results. Some $4.5bn had been ploughed into exploring in the region since 2005. Rumours continue to swirl that an activist investor is circling Shell with a view to taking a stake and forcing it adopt a more radical strategy.read more

Extracts from an article by Tunde Oyedoyin published by The Guardian Nigeria on Friday 25 July 2014

A BRITISH court will temporarily sit in Nigeria next year in a bid to determine how much compensation Shell Nigeria should pay to the fishermen of the Bodo community, who were affected by the two massive oil spills that occurred in their area in 2008 and 2009.

Although the decision to hear evidence from the fishermen was taken during a previous sitting on June 20, when the case was heard again Friday in Courtroom 20 of the Technology and Construction Court (TCC), Chancery Lane, Mr. Justice Akenhead confirmed that he will be sitting in Port Harcourt for two weeks, beginning May 5, 2015.read more

British oil giant is determined to continue its work in Russia and will not change its business strategy in the country, despite the sanctions imposed against Moscow by the United States and European Union, representative of Shell’s press service told RIA Novosti on Friday.

MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) – British oil giant is determined to continue its work in Russia and will not change its business strategy in the country, despite the sanctions imposed against Moscow by the United States and European Union, representative of Shell’s press service told RIA Novosti on Friday.

“Shell continues to run business in Russia both in the upstream and downstream without any changes. We monitor the situation regarding the sanctions. But so far there have been no changes in either the business itself or in the business strategy,” the source said.read more

Extracts from an article posted by Harris Martin Publishing on 25 July 2014

July 25, 2014

ORLANDO, Fla. –– Shell Oil Co. has removed a toluene exposure lawsuit to a Florida federal court, noting that while it is a Delaware corporation with a principal place of business in Texas, the plaintiff resides in Florida.

Shell Oil Company removed the complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on July 18, citing diversity jurisdiction and, further, noting that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.

In her lawsuit, plaintiff Celeste Keys contended that her exposure to the chemical compound toluene caused her to develop bladder cancer.read more

Extracts from an Interactive Investor article by Harriet Mann published Friday 25 July 2014

Although Barclays expects Shell to report the weakest quarterly momentum in the sector, driven by weak European natural gas prices, the City is largely bullish, with Deutsche Bank rating the stock ‘buy’ and JPMorgan and Barclays rating it ‘overweight’.

“With Shell’s financial rehabilitation seemingly underway our sense is that the portfolio and prospects means that the name is, once again, set to be (rightly) viewed as the premium Euro super-major. As the cash cycle moves back towards balance and investors gain confidence in income funding we expect the yield premium at which Shell trades to come,” Deutsche says.read more

Extract from a Chemistry World article by Jon Cartwright published 2 May 2014

The dream of producing hydrocarbon fuels from carbon dioxide and sunlight is one step closer thanks to chemists in Europe who have made jet fuel from scratch in a solar reactor for the first time. Although the chemists only produced enough kerosene to fill a glass jar, they believe a full-scale solar concentrator could produce 20,000 litres of jet fuel a day.

Various methods have been tried to effectively remove oxygen from syngas, but the one settled on by the Solar-Jet team was the use of cerium oxide, or ceria. read more

Californians: Are you entitled to a share in Shell $2M settlement?

By John Donovan

Equilon Enterprises, a fully owned subsidiary of Shell Oil, secretly recorded calls from U.S. customers contacting 888-GO-SHELL – a call centre. This included calls originating from California. Customers disclosed private information without being aware of the surreptitious recording of their calls being answered overseas.

Following a class action lawsuit, Shell has agreed to pay nearly $2 million in settlement for violations of California’s Invasion of Privacy Act. read more

Extracts from a Reuters article by Christopher Johnson published Wednesday 23 July 2014

LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) – Europe is coming under increasing pressure to close oil refineries as chronic over-capacity hits processing margins, dragging down group profits and hitting share prices.

Poland’s PKN Orlen and Czech processor Unipetrol both announced unexpected large losses on Wednesday after impairment charges at processing plants.

Larger oil peers Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Eni will report next week and refining is expected to weight heavily on the results.

Stephen George, principal consultant at KBC Advanced Technologies and a specialist in global refining economics, says many European refiners will have to close eventually, no matter how strong the political pressure to save jobs.read more

What is even more appalling is the fact that the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, is the one behind the scene steering the affairs of the Dutch Government and practically playing politics with ‘human lives.’

We find it rather appalling that the custodians’ of society, in this case; the Netherlands, Russia and other European states plus the oil giant-Royal Dutch Shell, are more interested in ‘their pockets,’ thirst for power politics and their economy/business rather than ‘human life’ and high moral values enshrined in the rule of law and rights of its citizenry. That is how best we can describe the pathetic situation playing out between some European nations and Russia and Shell in the middle. Like the above article has noted, it is really sad that “despite anger over downed Jetliner, Europe is shying away from sanctions against Russia.” What is even more appalling is the fact that the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, is the one behind the scene steering the affairs of the Dutch Government and practically playing politics with ‘human lives.’read more

Extract from a Seeking Alpha article published 23 July 2014

Dependent on Russia’s energy and wary of confrontation, Europe’s leaders have largely decided they will have to live with a newly assertive Russia.

The Netherlands lost at least 193 victims in the Malaysian Airlines crash over Ukraine, but Royal Dutch Shell is one of the largest foreign investors in Russian gas fields in Siberia; if Shell loses money, the pensions of Dutch teachers, civil servants and many others suffer.read more

Woodside’s buyback is part of last month’s $5 billion deal in which Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, will trim its 23 percent stake in the Australian company. It’s possible that Woodside investors voting on the transaction Aug. 1 will block the buyback, according to Macquarie Group Ltd.read more

Extract from a Joe McGinniss email to a PR officer for one of the organizations supporting the plaintiffs in the Wiwa v Shell case, in which Joe (right) criticised the $15.5 million settlement:

But I can’t help sensing that after finally reaching the point where you were about to show the world the evidence of Shell’s maleficence and perfidy you turned back from the brink, took a token payment, and let them off the hook. There may have been many sound reasons for doing so. Obviously, on balance, you collectively agreed that settlement was preferable to the trial you’d sought for thirteen years. But it was like you had the stake in your hand, and then instead of driving it into their foul and noxious heart you set it down, took their chump change, and walked away, leaving them able to scurry off spouting claims of having been “humanitarian.”read more

Extracts from an article by David Thorpe published 22 July 2014 by What Investment under the headline: “M&G: BP is a better investment than Shell right now”

Felton’s reason for not investing in Shell at present is that he believes the company has made a significant strategic blunder.

‘Shell has always been the high cost, low risk producer. They are the archetypal supertanker of the oil industry. But a few years ago, they began to focus on extracting very expensive oil from the Canadian sands. The rationale was that the higher production cost would be offset by the ease of transporting the oil just next door to the US. And that made sense, when the US was the largest oil market in the world, but the rapid acceleration of the fracking industry means that the US could become self-sufficient in energy within one or two years, which means Shell wouldn’t have that market.’read more

Extracts from a New York Times article by Thomas Erdbrink published 23 July 2014 in the New York edition under the headline: “Despite Anger Over Downed Jetliner, Europe Shies Away From Sanctions on Russia”

Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, which has its head office in The Hague, is one of the largest foreign investors in Russian gas fields in Siberia. Shell is the largest corporation in the Netherlands, and its stock is widely held in the nation’s pension funds. If Shell loses money, the pensions of Dutch teachers, civil servants and many others suffer.

As a result, the ties between Shell and the government are extremely close, and the company’s welfare inevitably influences policy, analysts said.read more

From an article published by the Guardian newspaper on 22 July 2014

It had more than 4.5m views in its first week…

The film was designed to increase the pressure on Lego to cut its ties with Shell. Arguably it is the way the film subverts and disrupts expectations that explains why more than 4.5 million people have watched it since it was released earlier this month.

Extract from an article published by economist.com on 19 July 2014: “Shell, Exxon and carbon: The elephant in the atmosphere”

IN SEPTEMBER 2013 a group of institutional investors with $3 trillion of assets under management asked the 45 biggest quoted oil firms how climate change might affect their business and, in particular, whether any of their oil reserves might become “stranded assets”—unusable if laws to curb emissions of carbon dioxide became really tight. Exxon Mobil and Shell are the most recent to get back with their assessment of the risk: zero. “We do not believe that any of our proven reserves will become ‘stranded’,” says Shell. read more

Extract from a Reuters article by Ed Cropley published 22 July 2014 under the headline: “UPDATE 1-S.African anti-fracking group threatens legal challenge”

JOHANNESBURG, July 22 (Reuters) – A South African anti-fracking group threatened a legal challenge on Tuesday to government plans to grant shale gas exploration licences in the pristine semi-desert of the Karoo, saying the regulatory process had been marked by “patent ineptitude”. Green groups wanting to protect the Karoo, believed to hold significant shale gas deposits, said Pretoria was incapable of ensuring firms such as Royal Dutch Shell, at the forefront of the fracking push, would adhere to the rules.read more

At one point the largest foreign investor in Russia, Shell declined to comment on whether its business would be affected after the downing of the plane. The company lost four employees in the incident, it said yesterday.

For centuries, the fortunes of the Netherlands, the wind-swept country carved out of North Sea wetlands, have relied on preserving the peace with its global trading partners. Last week’s downing of an airliner carrying 193 Dutch nationals is testing one of its most important relationships, involving companies from Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) to Heineken NV. (HEIA)

The Netherlands was Russia’s third-biggest trading partner last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The Dutch, home to the busiest container port in Europe and the region’s biggest energy company, send dairy products, meat and machinery to Russia, which the U.S. says is complicit in the attack.read more

Extract from an article by Andy Tully published by oil price.com on 21 July 2014

In 2013, however, one Shell well in Block D of the field came up dry, although Qatar had promoted it as a rich source of energy. As a result, Shell decided against even beginning a second exploratory well, anonymous sources told The Wall Street Journal. A person identified by The Journal only as a Shell spokesman said the first well had reached the depth planned to explore for gas, but “it did not encounter commercial volumes of hydrocarbons.” Now, he said, Shell is negotiating with QP and PetroChina on how to withdraw from the venture without drilling the second well.read more

Extracts from an article published 22 July 2014 by ThisDayLive under the headline: Protecting Oil Installations through Community Engagement

At a recent practical dialogue on the security and human rights practices of stakeholders involved in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, especially within the Niger Delta operational basin, the Global Rights Nigeria disclosed that oil companies in the country might have spent over $53 billion securing their operational facilities between 2007 and 2011.

Global Rights, which is currently headquartered in Washington noted that it was possibile the federal government expended such huge amount of money in securing oil and gas operations within the Niger Delta, owing to the region’s poor history of human rights practices.read more

Extracts from an article by Elizabeth Hopkirk and Ike Ijeh published by bdonline.co.uk on 22 July 2014

An opponent of Squire & Partners’ Shell Centre development has launched a legal challenge in the High Court. Activist and writer George Turner claims communities secretary Eric Pickles’ decision to approve the £1.3 billion scheme last month was flawed and will unleash a planning free-for-all on the South Bank. He served the challenge on Pickles, as well as the mayor of London, Lambeth council, Shell and developer Braeburn Estates, a joint venture between Qatari Diar and Canary Wharf Group. The defendants now have two weeks to respond. They are expected to contest the validity of Turner’s challenge.read more

Extract from a BloombergBusinessweek article by Carol Matlack published 21 July 2014

The Netherlands, a nation of traders, generally doesn’t like to let politics interfere with business. The death of 193 Dutch nationals in the Malaysia Airlines jet crash could change that.

Major Dutch companies with business interests in Russia also are drawing fire for their relations with President Vladimir Putin. “In April of this year, when the crisis over Crimea was at its height, [Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer] Ben van Beurden made a point of visiting Putin and saying that no matter the political situation, Shell and Russia had great plans for the future…” read more

Extract from a Motley Fool article by David Smith published 21 July 2014 under the headline: “Will ExxonMobil, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell Be Forced to Skedaddle From Russia?”

Amid a crescendo of calls in Washington for the imposition of severely tightened sanctions on Moscow, following last week’s tragic shoot-down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, I’m wondering whether in, say, six months, the likes of ExxonMobil, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell, will retain permission to work side-by-side with Rosneft and other Russian state-controlled energy companies.

Shell has a 27.5% interest with Gazprom in Sakhalin-2 on a desolate, eponymously named island in the Sea of Okhotsk, to Russia’s east. Until 2006 Shell operated the project, but late that year it was forced to sell much of its then majority interest to Gazprom, for what was generally agreed to be a pittance, relative to the $20 billion the company had already invested in the project.read more

LONDON, July 21 (UPI) –John Hollowell, Shell’s vice president in charge of deep waters in the Americas, told The Daily Telegraph in London there were few limitations to how deep or how far offshore oil companies can drill.

“How far you can go is really technology based,” he said in an interview published Sunday. “When we can’t overcome the technical barriers, that will be the end, but we have yet to reach that stage.”

The company said it’s working according to the terms of the new safety culture that emerged in the wake of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.read more

OSSL, the company that admits supplying free alcohol to Irish police on behalf of Shell EP Ireland is challenging senior Irish police officers, who apparently deny receiving the goods said to be worth tens of thousands of Euros, to take lie detector tests.

The challenge is contained in an email sent earlier today to senior executives of Shell including the Company Secretary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Mr Michiel Brandjes.

OSSL directors say that they are prepared to take lie-detector tests themselves with Shell representatives in attendance. read more

Extract from FT article by Guy Chazan published 20 July 2014

Three of Europe’s largest oil companies could take a $1.5bn hit to earnings as a result of delays to Kashagan, the $50bn oil project in the Caspian Sea that has been bedevilled by hold-ups and cost over-runs.

Extracts from a Telegraph article by Scott Campbell published 19 July 2014

It is with some pride that Marvin Odum, the president of Shell Oil and director of its upstream business in the Americas, talks about the rapid pace at which his company is reaching new depths in the Gulf of Mexico. “More people have walked on the moon than have been at the depths we’re exploring,” he boasts.

But standing on the platform – Shell’s sixth-largest tension leg project – Odum, in full fluorescent gear, is keen to emphasise that when it comes to safety, there are no compromises. “It’s the most important thing that we deal with out here and it’s always front of mind for us,” he explains.read more

Extracts from a Petroleum News article by Eric Lidji published week of 20 July 2014 under the headline: “Explorers 2014: It’s try, try, try again for Shell in the Arctic”

Shell has cancelled its past two exploration programs in the Arctic and the 2015 program is uncertain.

As Royal Dutch Shell plc nears the end of its first decade back in Alaska, the company is only slightly ahead of where it started. But it’s still aiming for the bounty of the Arctic.

After four decades of exploration – including pioneering work across the Chukchi Sea, the Beaufort Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, the Bering Sea and Cook Inlet – Shell left Alaska in 1998. The company acquired a bundle of onshore leases in the central North Slope in 2001, but put the leases on the market a year later and ultimately dropped them in 2004.read more

We consider it a very unwise move by Shell that Mr. Osagie Okunbor, who was said to be the former Vice President (VP) Human Resources, Shell (SPDC), is currently being considered/prepared to assume the position of the Managing Director (MD) and Country Chair of Shell (SPDC) Nigeria. We strongly advise that relevant authorities of Royal Dutch Shell and Shell (SPDC) Nigeria should give this issue raised the needed attention.

Mr. Osagie Okunbor is said to be on cross-posting to The Hague, in other for him to be ‘groomed’ to occupy the said exalted position and take over from Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, who will soon go on retirement.

Extract from a Motley Fool article by Royston Wild published Friday 18 July 2014 under the headline: The Risks Of Investing In Royal Dutch Shell Plc

Like its industry rival BP, Shell also faces the prospect of being dragged through the courts — and having to incur huge legal penalties — as a result of a major oil catastrophe.

Some 11,000 villagers from the Nigerian village of Bodo are taking action against the business after thefts from the Bomu-Bonny pipeline caused two large oil spills in 2008. Shell had initially offered to compensate claimants to the tune of £30m back in 2011, an offer which it repeated after an initial hearing at the UK High Court in June.read more

DISCLAIMER

Meta

Ben van Beurden Breaking News

Kremlin Asks Interpol To Help Find Alleged CIA Mole13 Sep 2019 15:28Daily CallerRussia’s foreign ministry on Thursday asked Interpol, the international policing agency, for help to find a Russian government official rumored to be a CIA mole. The Russian government issued the request regarding Oleg Smolenkov, a mid-tier Kremlin …

Kremlin Downplays Role Of Former Official Rumored To Be CIA Mole11 Sep 2019 03:05Daily CallerThe Kremlin’s top spokesman confirmed Tuesday that a man rumored in the Russian press to be a longtime CIA asset worked in the Russian government, but in a low-level position. Dmitry Peskov fielded inquiries about Oleg Smolenkov, who Russian media outlets …

Why Shares of Royal Dutch Shell Fell More Than 10% in August05 Sep 2019 03:29The Motley FoolWhat happened
Shares of Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS-A)(NYSE:RDS-B) fell more than 10% in August, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Shell has two classes of American depositary receipts (ADR) shares that trade on the New York …

New York Times drops sponsorship of oil conference03 Sep 2019 05:39The GuardianThe New York Times has scrapped plans to sponsor one of the world’s biggest oil industry conferences after pressure from climate campaigners including Extinction Rebellion.
There were protests outside the newspaper’s offices in Manhattan this month over …

The Most Amazing Quote From BP's Q2 Earnings Call15 Aug 2019 00:42The Motley FoolWhen you think of big oil companies like BP (NYSE:BP) or ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), you might think about their service stations. Or you might think about their large refineries, or their oil wells, both on- and offshore. What you probably don't think …

500 EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS CITING OUR WEBSITES

See our link list of 477 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission websiteetc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of 64 books also containing references to our websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website ownerHead-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.

DISCLAIMER

This is not a Shell website, nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell.
There are no subscription charges nor do we solicit or accept donations.

SHELL PRELUDE TO DISASTER

The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell above, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.

NAZI NAMED SHIP HIRED BY SHELL

The campaign waged on this website by John Donovan to persuade Edward Heerema to rename the worlds biggest ship, The Pieter Schelte - which he named after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, a former Officer in the German Waffen-SS - has been successful. On Friday 6 February 2015, Allseas announced that it was changing the ships name, and on 9 February announced the new name - Pioneering Spirit.

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EMPLOYEE DATA BREACH

GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE: FEBRUARY 2010
MORE INFORMATION: Contact details for over 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell reached John Donovan and some environmental and human rights groups, ostensibly from disaffected Shell staff calling for a “peaceful corporate revolution” at the company. The database, from Shell’s internal directory, contained names and telephone numbers for all the company’s work force worldwide, including some home numbers. It was supplied with a 170­ page covering note, explaining that it was being circulated by “116 concerned employees of Shell dispersed throughout the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands”, to highlight the harm done by the company’s operations in Nigeria. John Donovan brought the leak to the attention of Shell. Tests proved that the data was authentic and he destroyed the database after being informed by Mr. Richard Wiseman, the then Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, that the confidential information if publicly disclosed, could put Shell employees and contractors in real danger.

SHELL’S ROLE IN NIGERIAN OPL 245 BRIBERY SCANDAL

Whatever fig leaves they might be trying to use to hide the truth, Shell and Eni paid over $1bn to a company called Malabu for the OPL 245 licence. Even though the payment was channelled through the Nigerian government, it was clear that Shell knew that the ultimate beneficiary was Dan Etete, the former minister of petroleum. Etete is the owner of Malabu, to whom he awarded the licence when he was Nigerian Minister of Petroleum.

SHELL PERSECUTION OF DR JOHN HUONG

SHELL SAKHALIN2 DEBACLE

NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL

Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.

MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labor and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labor and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell's Nazi connections can be found in extracts from "A History of Royal Dutch Shell" Volumes 1 and 2 authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.

Photograph (full size here) shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)

Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group - known as "The Most Powerful Man in the World" - who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party.

SHELL ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS

SHELL IP PIRACY

Reading between the lines in various legal documents, it seems that the allegations are that after the technology in question had been disclosed to a Shell company in the USA, the information was passed to Shell in the Netherlands in breach of confidentiality. And Royal Dutch Shell subsequently exploited the technology without payment or credit to the company holding the rights; Newton Research Partners. The inference seems to be that Twister B.V. was founded by Shell partly on trade secrets stolen from Bloom/Newton.

WEBSITE INFORMATION

DISCLAIMER: This is not a Shell website nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Originally co-founded by the late Alfred Donovan and his son John, it is now operated by John, Shell's "No.1 Enemy", aided by an expert team, with invaluable support from retired Shell senior executives and officials as guest contributors and leaked information from Shell insiders.(JOHN DONOVAN, WEBSITE OWNER)For nearly a decade, we have operated globally under the Royal Dutch Shell Plc top level domain name, dealing on Shell’s reluctant behalf with job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, an approach from the Dutch Defence Ministry and even terrorist threats. All meant for Shell. Prospect magazine has aptly described this website as being:"An open wound for Shell":WIPO proceedings by Shell to seize the domain name failed.NO SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES: All of our watchdog activities monitoring Royal Dutch Shell, including operating this website, are carried out on a non-profit basis. Any advertising revenues generated are used to recover and/or defray operational costs. We are a news aggregator and original content website. All information is available free for educational and research purposes. SHELL TACIT ENDORSEMENT: WHAT A WELL INFORMED SHELL OFFICIAL SAID ABOUT US:
"John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK/Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass,belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security "CAS") is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website. The insider leaks had already cost Shell billions on the Sakhalin Energy project and the loss of SEIC Deputy Chairman, David Greer.We publish our own carefully researched articles about Shell e.g. "How Royal Dutch Shell saved Hitler and the Nazi Party".MEDIA COVERAGE: Prospect Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, have all published major articles about us: "Rise of the Gripe Site";"Two men and a website mount vendetta against Shell' and "92-year-old's website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked”. SHELL PETROL STATION images displayed in the website header panel are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Information on copyright issues here.
John Donovan can be contacted at [email protected]

SHELL’S $500,000 WEDDING GIFT TO CORRUPT BRUNEI ROYAL FAMILY

EXTRACT FROM ASIAN JOURNAL ARTICLE IN LIST OF LINKS BELOW: "Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia."

BILL CAMPBELL WHISTLEBLOWER EMAIL TO MP’S

IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS:

THIS IS WHAT IT SAID:

Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.

Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.

My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.

As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.

I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.

When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.

Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.

Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking £900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.

Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).

Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record - the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions – tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.

I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.

My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.

However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.

At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.

Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell

ENDS

(Malcolm Brinded and Jeroen van der Veer are no longer with Shell. The Oil Director referred to in the email is Chris Finlayson, who left Shell to become Chief Executive of British Gas before being fired - his photo immediately below)

SHELL RESERVES FRAUD

SIR PHILIP WATTS, THE GROUP CHAIRMAN OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, FORCED TO RESIGN IN 2004

Shell’s reputation was destroyed in 2004 after FIVE consecutive cuts to its hydrocarbon reserves covering 55% of its total reserves. US and UK financial regulators imposed $150 million in fines on Shell for securities fraud. Shell was also rocked by class action lawsuits.Sir Philip Watts
and Walter van de Vijver (whose headcut images appear courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) were among the Shell executives forced to resign. More details at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: The Shell reserves scandal brought about
the end of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in its original form as an Anglo-Dutch partnership.
Shell Transport & Trading Co and Royal Dutch Petroleum were unified into a single Dutch owned company - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Sir Philip turned to religion and is now a very wealthy priest after receiving a payoff/pension package from Shell reportedly worth $18.5 million. Walter van de Vijver in contrast was the victim of a sadistic sacking by his Shell senior management backstabbing colleagues.

by John Donovan

Displayed below are some of the spectacular promotional campaigns my company Don Marketing created for Shell in the 1980s and 1990s. This was before the series of SIX high court actions we brought against Shell for stealing ideas (4) and for defamation (2) - all settled by Shell. This website is a permanent response by me to the malicious underhand tactics, including treachery, espionage and intimidation, used by Shell during and after the bouts of litigation. More information is printed at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: After a solicitor acting for Shell threatened to make the litigation "drawn out and difficult" with the intention of draining the resources of a financially weaker opponent, my late father (Alfred Donovan) and I decided to mount a wide-ranging campaign as a counter-measure. We jointly founded the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, which nearly 15% of Shell UK retailers joined. We regularly conducted ethical surveys involving up to 1500 Shell petrol stations. All responses were opened and authenticated by an independent solicitor who supplied Affidavits confirming the results. In whole page announcements in trade magazines (examples above) we challenged Shell to commission and publish the resuits of independent research asking the same questions and offering respondents GUARANTEED anonymity. Shell never took up the invitation. Instead it asked the UK Advertising Standards Authority to investigate our Shell surveys. No problems were found. The head-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.

SHELL CONTROVERSIES

selection of memorable warnings/articles/images associated with the controversial track record of Royal Dutch Shell.

WARNING: DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR IDEAS TO SHELL GameChanger OR SHELL Ideas360 WITHOUT TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION. Shell management has ample funds to pay for intellectual property but prefers to steal it from small businesses and in our experience, gives its full backing to dishonest managers willing to do its bidding. We have sued Shell repeatedly in the High Court for the theft of our Intellectual Property. It is doubtful if anyone can match our dire experience in dealing with this ruthless unscrupulous serial poacher of other parties ideas. Expect threats, legal machinations and sinister action from Shell and its spooks if you object to having your ideas stolen.

Some years ago extensive documentary evidence was brought to the attention of Malcolm Brinded above, when he was Chairman of Shell UK, proving beyond any doubt that Shell executives had conspired to rig a tender for a major contract. A number of innocent firms were deliberately lured into signing confidentiality agreements and disclosing Intellectual Property to Shell under false pretences, in a carefully contrived plot. The firm which was awarded the contract never took part in the tender. One objective of the Machiavellian plan was to stop/delay IP trade secrets owned by the participants in the tender from being disclosed to Shell's rivals. This was achieved by outright deception, without paying a cent to the firms involved, who wrongly believed they were participating in an honest tender. Instead of sacking the ring leader, AJL - who had a personal relationship with the firm which miraculously won the race in which it never ran - Shell senior directors, including Brinded, gave AJL their full backing. Some of the Shell executives involved, including for example, Tim Hannagan, still hold high positions inside Shell - in his case, Global Brand and Visual Identity Manager. If Shell does not accept that this is a true, provable account of what happened, then it should sue for libel. How on earth is such predatory conduct compatible with Shell's claimed business principles?